Monthly Archives: January 2012

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Educators can register now for the free Play Safe! Be Safe! event on Feb. 10

Austin, TX — KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, in partnership with other community organizations brings the award-winning fire safety education workshop Play Safe! Be Safe! to Austin on Friday, Feb. 10, at the Region XIII Education Service Center, 5701 Springdale Road. This event is designed to give teachers, other child care providers, child care program managers and fire and life safety educators the information and tools they need to instruct children ages three to five on fire safety.

The day’s activities will present a fascinating and entertaining look into the preschool child’s perception of fire, the surprising frequency of children’s misuse of fire and practical approaches to teach young children fire safety. All participants receive a free Play Safe! Be Safe! kit and trainers will receive additional kits for distribution.

KLRU’s Play Safe! Be Safe! training event will be from 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 10 at Region XIII Education Service Center. The event is free but pre-registration is required. Register online now or contact Mary Alice Appleman at 512-475-9051 or maappleman@klru.org

KLRU is presenting Play Safe! Be Safe! in conjunction with United Way Capital Area, Region XIII Education Service Center and Texas State Fire Marshal Office.

Play Safe! Be Safe! is an award-winning fire safety education program created especially for children ages three to five. It was developed by BIC Corporation in cooperation with educators and fire safety experts. Find educational games and activities for your children or students, or learn about our workshops for educators, community leaders and fire safety personnel by using the links below.more →

KLRU added Bill Moyers’ new show Moyers & Company to our Friday night public affairs lineup last week. If you want to watch Moyers & Company online, you can go to billmoyers.com

On Friday, January 20th at 8 pm on Moyers & Company, the discussion continues about how money dominates politics. For years, high-ranking administration officials have spun through the revolving door between the White House and American big business. But how have they influenced the regulation of industries from which they came — and American democracy as a result? This weekend, continuing our sharp multi-episode focus on the intersection of money and politics, Moyers & Companyexplores the tight connection between Wall Street and the White House with David Stockman, former budget director for President.

Currently a businessman who says he was “taken to the woodshed” for telling the truth about the administration’s tax policies, Stockman speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. “As a result,” Stockman says, “we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism.”

Stockman shares details on how the courtship of politics and high finance have turned our economy into a private club that rewards the super-rich and corporations, leaving average Americans wondering how it could happen and who’s really in charge.

“We now have an entitled class of Wall Street financiers and of corporate CEOs who believe the government is there to do… whatever it takes in order to keep the game going and their stock price moving upward,” Stockman tells Moyers.

Also on the show, Moyers talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and columnist Gretchen Morgenson on how money and political clout enable industries to escape regulation and enrich executives at the top. Morgenson warned of Wall Street’s culpability in the widening income gap back in 2007 on Bill Moyers Journal.

Join KLRU and the Austin Public Library for free Community Cinema screenings on the first Tuesday of the month at the Windsor Park Branch Library (5833 Westminster Dr,). Screenings will start at 7 p.m. with a discussion to follow each of the films. The next screening will be More Than a Month on February 7th.

More Than a Month
Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Through this tongue-in-cheek journey, MORE THAN A MONTH investigates what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America.

KLRU-Q takes you out to the ballgame with documentaries focusing on America’s past time from Jan. 15th to March 25th. Ken Burns’ Baseball airs at 8 pm each Sunday and other documentaries air as noted following Ken Burns’ Baseball airings.

January 15th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “Our Game”
The first inning tells the story of baseball’s rise, in only one generation, from a gentleman’s hobby to a national sport played and watched by millions. Viewers meet the first baseball magnate, Albert Goodwill Spalding; explore the game’s first gambling scandal; see the first attempts by women to play the game in the 1860′s; witness the first attempt by ball players to unionize; and learn how the first black professionals were hounded out of the game in the “Jim Crow” 1880′s.

January 22nd – Ken Burns’ Baseball “Something Like A War”
The second inning introduces some of the most extraordinary individuals ever to play the game: Ty Cobb, the volatile, brilliant outfielder who may have been the greatest ball player of all time, but who was “possessed by the furies”; Walter Johnson, the modest farm boy with a fast ball so intimidating batters sometimes left the batter’s box after only two strikes; Christy Mathewson, a college-educated pitcher so virtuous he was worshipped by schoolchildren as “the Christian gentleman”; and John McGraw, the brawling, unstoppable manager of the New York Giants who “took kids out of the coal mines and the wheat fields and made them walk and talk and chatter and play ball with the look of eagles.”

January 29th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “The Faith of 50 Million People”
The Black Sox scandal, which is at the center of the third inning, reveals how eight members of the Chicago White Sox including the incomparable shoeless Joe Jackson, “Played with the faith of 50 million people,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald later wrote, by taking money from gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series.

February 5th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “A National Heirloom”
Babe Ruth, the Baltimore saloon-keeper’s son who became the best-known and best-loved athlete in American history, and who was described by sportswriter Jimmy Cannon as a “National Heirloom,” is the focus of the fourth inning. This inning details how Ruth’s phenomenal performance thrilled the nation throughout the 1920s and rescued the game from the scandal that threatened to destroy it.

Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story Feb. 5th at 10 pm
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Storyexplores the connection between Jewish Americans and America’s national pastime. The feature- length documentary tells a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions and the shattering of stereotypes. Interviews feature fans, writers, executives and players, including Al Rosen, Kevin Youkilis, Shawn Green, Norm Sherry, Ron Blomberg, Bob Feller, Yogi Berra and legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax. Jews and Baseball: An American Love StoryL interweaves powerful personal and historical stories with an extraordinary collection of rare archival footage and photos, and a musical score ranging from Benny Goodman to Yo-Yo Ma to Rush.

February 12th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “Shadow Ball”
The fifth “inning” of Ken Burns’s film BASEBALL looks at baseball’s desperate attempts to survive the Great Depression and Babe Ruth’s fading career, while a new generation of stars, including Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, is on the rise. It also presents the parallel world of the Negro Leagues, which thrived in the shadow of the Major Leagues. The inning culminates with the greatest showdown in the history of the Negro Leagues: Satchel Paige, arguably the best pitcher ever, against Josh Gibson, “the black Babe Ruth,” in the Negro League World Series.

February 19th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “The National Pastime”
The sixth “inning” leads off with the baseball season of 1941, one of the most exciting of all time. Joe DiMaggio hits in 56 straight games, the longest hitting streak in history. Ted Williams becomes the last man to hit .400. The Brooklyn Dodgers win their first pennant in 20 years. Then the war intervenes and baseball’s best players become soldiers. On their return, the game – and the entire country — are changed forever: Branch Rickey integrates baseball on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Baseball finally becomes what it had always claimed to be: America’s national pastime.

February 26th – Ken Burns’ Baseball “The Capital of Baseball”
In the seventh “inning” rare newsreel film and interviews celebrate the glorious heyday of New York City baseball with some of its most memorable moments: the “shot heard round the world,” Bobby Thomson’s home run off Ralph Branca in 1951; Willie Mays’ incredible catch in the 1954 World Series; and Don Larsen’s perfect game. The highlight of the episode is 1955, when the Brooklyn Dodgers, sparked by Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, finally win their first World Series, only to be moved by their owner to a new city 3,000 miles away: Los Angeles.

1955 World Series: 7 Days of Fall, Feb. 26th at 10:15 pm
The 1955 World Series – Seven Days of Fall’ about the 1955 Brooklyn Dodger/New York Yankee World Series is based upon the poem, entitled “1955″, by James T. Crawford. In unprecedented style, the presentation uniquely blends the normal documentary elements of archival film footage, still images, narration, player and fan interviews, period music, and recital of the poem to recount this timeless story 50 years later. It’s a program about dedication, teamwork, belief in one self and commitment to achievement against all odds; the story of the Brooklyn Dodger’s only World Championship after 65 years of futility, and of the team’s unique connection with the community that so closely identified with it. ’1955′ is more then a sports story, but a time capsule of a period in American history like no other. Or as, the documentary’s epilogue states: To believe was to achieve … back in 1955″.

7:00 PM Nature – “Broken Tail: A Tiger’s Last Journey”
Irish cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson spent almost 600 days filming Broken Tail and his family for some of the finest tiger documentaries ever made. Broken Tail was the most charismatic tiger cub ever seen in Ranthambore, one of India’s best protected tiger reserves. But suddenly and without warning Broken Tail abandoned his sanctuary and went on the run, moving through farmland and scrub until he was killed by a train nearly 200 miles from his home. To track Broken Tail’s incredible journey, Colin and his soundman, Salim, retrace the tiger’s path and piece together the cub’s last days – and through his story reveal the fate of the few surviving tigers in India.
8:00 PM NOVA – 3D Spies of WWII
During World War II, Hitler’s scientists developed terrifying new weapons of mass destruction. Alarmed by rumors about advanced rockets and missiles, Allied intelligence recruited a team of brilliant minds from British universities and Hollywood studios to a country house near London. Here, they secretly pored over millions of air photos shot at great risk over German territory by specially converted, high-flying Spitfires. Peering at the photos through 3D stereoscopes, the team spotted telltale clues that revealed hidden Nazi rocket bases. The photos led to devastating Allied bombing raids that were crucial setbacks to the German rocket program and helped ensure the success of the D-Day landings. With 3D graphics that recreate exactly what the photo spies saw, NOVA tells the suspenseful, previously untold story of air photo intelligence that played a vital role in defeating Hitler.

9:00 PM Inside Nature’s Giants – “Sperm Whale”
Veterinary scientist Mark Evans and comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg dissect a sperm whale’s enormous organs to reveal the secrets of this 45-foot deep-sea giant, which stranded and died on Pegwell Bay, Kent, England. As the team ventures inside the whale, biologist Simon Watt tracks whales in the Azores with a modern-day Jonah, Malcolm Clarke, who shows him the huge number of squid beaks in a whale’s stomach. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, marveling at the gigantic teeth that have evolved in the lower jaw of a sperm whale, digs out his copy of the King James Bible for a reading about Leviathan from the Book of Job.

Masterpiece at 8 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Saturday presents part two of “Downton Abbey, Series II”. Downtown is turned into a convalescent home with Thomas in charge. Meanwhile, Lavinia and Sir Richard’s secret comes out, Anna tracks down Bates and Branson seizes his chance to strike a blow for Ireland.

Sherlock Holmes stalks again on Masterpiece Mystery! at 9 p.m. Sunday in a thrilling contemporary version of the Victorian-era whodunits. When an unidentified woman, dressed all in pink, turns up murdered in an abandoned building, Sherlock must use the science of deduction to catch the killer on “Sherlock: A Study in Pink”.

Hosted by President and Mrs. Obama in the East Room of the White House, “In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music From the Civil Rights Era” at 9 p.m. Monday features popular musicians performing contemporary arrangements of music that galvanized the U.S. civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. more →

We are proud to announce that KLRU is one of 9 pilot stations chosen to place local content on the PBS iPad and iPhone apps. The localization process is a little clunky, so we’ve put a page together to help explain it, http://www.klru.org/mobile/app.php

Right now we have 6 episodes of Arts In Context (Caballero is forthcoming), 6 episodes of CTG (many more will be added after the transition to HD), 8 episodes of Overheard, 9 episodes of The Daytripper, and we are about to put 15 shorts from Collective.

It’s a pretty exciting project, we hope you think so too. Enjoy KLRU on the go!

Aviva wants to build a food web for the African savannah, so she devises a game and Martin and Chris accept her challenge! They will each start as a blade of grass and climb to the top of the food web in a game of “Power Suit Creature Tag.” As they play, the brothers boost their knowledge of the complex relationships between predators and prey as well as the differences between herbivores and carnivores.

The Douglas Drane Charitable Trust has made a $25,000 contribution to KLRU in support of our Strategic Research Plan. The Plan will provide the market intelligence needed to inform strategic and tactical decisions and measure KLRU’s progress in meeting its vision, mission and goals.

This gift will enable us to perform an annual market tracking study, as well as monthly viewer and member studies. We will turn an eye toward programming and campaign measurement, Web and social media, and the KLRU Member Advisory Panel. As a result of this gift, the community data we capture will be representative of Central Texas Households as never before, and we will incorporate this data in a meaningful way into the planning and execution of our ongoing strategy.

We are delighted that the Douglas Drane Charitable Trust will continue partnering with our station to further refine our community identity so that, as we are inspired by Austin, we may better inspire Austin. Thank you!